News

* 19 July - The EU-HERMES team, in the recent Polarstern Expedition, are featured on the homepage of the International Polar Year.     View the screenshot   |   Read the article

* 18 July - The Nordsee Zeitung publishes an excerpt of the Polarstern ARK-XXII/1a Expedition diary. Deutsche Version »

* 21 June - This morning, we arrived in Tromsoe and visited Univ. of Tromsoe Geology Dept. Later in the evening, we returned to Polarstern’s Bridge and was refined gourmet reception with EU dignitaries and members of the Polar Commission.
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* 20 June - Lab Inspection by the stern First Mate …. .

* 19 June - Cleaning and Packing Day!! Yes, a few days before reaching port, we must already clean the lab and packed all our laboratory equipment. But a few were still working and had to finish packing at 4 a.m.

* 17 June - Official Sunday do in the Library/Blue Saloon where the Captain (in uniform) rang the bell and together with the Chief scientists made a toast. more »

* 16 June - The JAGO submersible performed a special dive - its 1000th Dive. And in it is the Chief Scientist, Prof. Dr. Joern Thiede.

* 15 June - At 11 p.m., the CTD was lowered to ca. 2000m depth, together with several Styrofoam balls and at 1 a.m., the CTD surfaced. Find out here about what happened to the Styrofoam balls!

* 12 June - The school pupils get to experience a submersible dive! Looking at the video of certain scientists’s dives, they tried to do what the scientists would actually do - observe and record down the important observations of fauna, substrates, geological formations, current flow, positions, etc. Experience a submersible dive yourself!

* 10 June - The Weight-watchers’ Club - here you get weighed in by the burly engine-room crew with big hearts (they ran it for charity work for the children’s cancer hospital).

* 9 June - We began our Scientific Report training…. . In the meantime, the friendly Elektroniker Mr. Werner Dimmler gave us an educational ‘Satellite Tour’. Pictures here.

* 8 June - After a few attempts, at last we managed to get an interview with the amazing JAGO submersible team, as well as with the Captain of Polarstern!!

* 7 June - Extremely good food the past week led to a visit to the Polarstern ‘magical’ kitchen where the main Chef was interviewed, together with a few of the Stewardesses.

* 6 June - In the morning, the 2 helicopters onboard flew to Tromsoe (Norway) with a few of the participants and the letters some of the pupils have written home. The helicopters returned in the afternoon with 4 new scientific participants.

* 5 June - Sponge spicules preparation
While the sea trial of the upgraded Deep Sea Sediment Echo Sounder "Parasound P-70" is carried out at the deep sea area (ca. 2500m), the school pupils learnt more about sponges, etc.

* 4 June - the submarine JAGO went diving with the EU-HERMES WP10 leader Laurenz Thomsen with the main task of collecting materials for the school pupils. The media people from OecklTV were there to film the pupils selecting their bounty from the deep for their projects.

* 3 June - Helicopter study visit by the EU-HERMES Outreach school pupils. more »

* 2 June - the first giant boxcorer was sent down to the bottom of the seabed and hauled up a sample of the seabed, with interesting fauna! Gesche and Steffen were 'interns' with the Max Planck group, learning about and classifying sponges etc, while Aline and Rune were with U. Plymouth group learning about and classifying worms, molluscs, etc.

* 1 June - Journey to the bowels of Polarstern! A study tour of the engine rooms area, water desalination, sewage treatment, emergency battery, etc. more »

* 1 June - The Yellow Submarine... Aline, Gesche, Steffen and Rune got into the mini submersible called JAGO

* 31 May - The pupils launched the radio transmitter and weather balloon! more »

* 31 May - Steffen Wittek celebrated his 19 th birthday onboard Polarstern. Herzlichen Glueckwuensch und alles gute zum Geburtstag!!

* 29 May - Sail away!! Amidst heavy rain, the 4 school pupils embarked on the POLARSTERN and at noon we sailed out of Bremerhaven. Later in the evening the Chief Scientist, Prof. Joern Thiede, gave his first briefing to the participants of the PS ARK XXII/1a. more »